When a Muslim Sister Dies

[Graphic by Musab bin Umair]

Sara Sharif and Shuhada Sadaqat had little in common in their life. The former was a young girl born into Islam and the latter was a convert to Islam in her fifties. Their deaths, even more contrasting. Sharif was brutally murdered, meanwhile Sadaqat passed after health complications –– we pray that they are both granted Paradise. Where they are similar, however, is that they were both unveiled by the British media.

Granted that the reason Muslim woman and girls wear the hijab is ultimately down to submission to Allah, their personal reasons may vary. Regardless, if they spent their life –– however much of it they got to live –– wearing it, it is clear that was the way they presented themselves to the world. Why then do the British Media, when they pick up on a noteworthy death of a Muslim woman or girl, make the deliberate choice to announce their death with images of them without hijab? Do not be naive to think this is just a coincidence or an ignorant mistake, it is not.

When ten year old Sharif was murdered, instead of using images that were available to them of her in hijab, every news publication you can possibly think of used images taken of her in the privacy of her own home where she and other Muslim girls and women do not wear hijab . When Sadaqat passed, instead of using more recent images of her in her final years and months when she wore hijab, the media instead opted for images well before her reversion –– often 20-30 years before. Sadaqat was a global icon for her work in the Music industry and it is apparent it was simply unacceptable for the media to mourn the version of herself she chose to die upon, that being as a Muslim woman.

The West has not made their opposition to the hijab discreet. In France, it is banned in certain places. The Niqab –– which some Muslims hold to be obligatory –– has a total ban. Boris Johnson, a man who attained the highest political office in the UK, likened those who wear the niqab to letter boxes and bank robbers. MPs have on occasion made public statements discouraging their constituents from attending MP surgeries while wearing the niqab. Even our own Muslim Mayor of London Sadiq Khan told Muslim women to think twice if it is a good idea to wear the niqab since "eye contact matters" . . . someone A) does not know that niqab does not cover the eyes and B) has probably skipped over Chapter 24 Verse 30 of the Qur'an.

Why is it that the hijab is so hard to stomach to the West? By the West, I do not mean your co-workers, or your friends, or your neighbour, but rather the systems the West has: governments, the media, the law etc. To us, it is simply an obligation that we recognise needs following. They tell us otherwise. They tell us that they would never wish to take away women's right to practice hijab, but merely that they have 'concerns' over if it is forced or not. That they don't think a child can possibly be happy wearing one. That it makes people feel slightly uncomfortable. As infuriating it may be to hear faux concern, what do you expect from countries where laying nude in a public park is not inherently illegal and where children can choose to mutilate their bodies?

While the majority of UK citizens are decent people who we peacefully and often happily co-exist with, it is also obvious the UK –– and many countries like it –– have a cultural issue. In the bluntest way possible the Western man is, often, a failed man. The Western man lacks protectiveness and honour over their partners, their daughters, and sisters. This is their issue, not ours. If they fail to recognise to see it as such, then so be it, it is simply not our concern:

"You have your way, and I have my way" [Qur'an 109:6].

Where the line must be drawn at though when they insist on us following their ways. The most sinister way they carry out this insistence is when they choose how Muslim women are seen for a final time after their passing in the media.

In 2024, a Member of the House Lords told Muslim women to take off their hijab "for an hour" as a sign of solidarity with Iranian women who must wear the hijab by law. Every article published on this website includes something to take away from it: sometimes a lesson, action, or a new perspective. This week, it will be action. If politicians in the UK feel emboldened enough to suggest Muslim women take the hijab off as a form of protest, we encourage you to begin taking steps towards wearing the hijab if you do not already. Not as protest but in an act of unwavering faith towards Allah.